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'Amy and Clown' is a series of four books - I'm currently writing the fifth.
When I was eight, I had a brief lead-rein ride on a donkey at the church fête and I was instantly smitten. From then on, I wanted a pony or a donkey so badly I could hardly bear it. And it just got worse. After three years of determined nagging (and a lot of practising riding on a large and battered old saddle with half the padding missing), my parents bought me and my brother a six-month old, wild Dartmoor colt from Bampton Fair. My brother wasn't really into ponies but he went along with it. We named this dark grey colt Misty. He was straight off the moors and we tamed him by walking him for miles along the country roads.
Eventually, the day came when I took him to a big steep field. (I'll never know why I chose such a difficult field.) Anyway, I simply got on and away we went! It was all about downhill speed, swerving and bucking! With no saddle and no actual riding experience, I was off more than I was on, but a fearless passion to ride won through. Although I was thrown hundreds of times, I never hurt myself. Finally, after weeks of battling, I learned to stay on.
Misty was very much into biting and my mum was scared stiff of him. My dad always called him Al Capone, after the famous American gangster. Needless to say, Clown is modelled on this pony! A friend, Marilyn, and I used to borrow another pony, a chestnut called Trino. We had the most brilliant fun.
At different times over the years, I owned and rode Suzannah, Huckleberry, Sparks, and Ibn Suhar, my beautiful bay Arab. My children also had various ponies and went to local gymkhanas and shows.
My riding days ended because I no longer lived on a farm; I was left with many golden memories and a big gap. Eventually, I took up writing the Amy and Clown series (now available as eBooks and paperbacks). The most important part of my stories are the people and the ponies, and I like most of them to have at a least a few faults. I love my characters and sometimes have to remind myself that they aren't real.
